Everyday feels like a vacation here

[saibot]

Originally Posted by CorporateCowboy

Yeah, it’s clear you have a ‘vacation-like’ image of the place, per the thread, inspired by TV i.e. you refer to OC as ‘the OC’.

Busted!

[sacreole]

Originally Posted by CorporateCowboy

Yeah, it’s clear you have a ‘vacation-like’ image of the place, per the thread, inspired by TV i.e. you refer to OC as ‘the OC’.

Whoa Cowboy! I think you read too much into my post. If I inadvertently referred to Orange County as “the OC” that’s immaterial to what I shared. There are people who refer to the Inland Empire as “the 909.” The truth is I do enjoy vacationing in Orange County. I realize that in spite of the beaches, shopping centers and amusement parks, it is a place where everyday people live, work, worship and study. I try and hold a grounded view of the places I visit. Calling Orange County “the OC” or just “OC” is just semantics. And BTW, I never watched the TV show that you referred to.

[CorporateCowboy]

Originally Posted by sacreole

I think you read too much into my post.

Nah. You stated you only think in terms of (‘the’) OC as a place to vacation; I simply pointed out it was obvious relative to semantics, as I feel is the case for most (per the thread). In other words, I was actually commending your post. ;-)

Originally Posted by sacreole

If I inadvertently referred to Orange County as “the OC” that’s immaterial to what I shared.

Originally Posted by sacreole

And BTW, I never watched the TV show that you referred to.

I never did either, but you’ve clearly heard of it; else, how can you ‘inadvertently’ refer to OC as ‘the OC’?

[sacreole]

Originally Posted by CorporateCowboy

Nah. You stated you only think in terms of (‘the’) OC as a place to vacation; I simply pointed out it was obvious relative to semantics, as I feel is the case for most (per the thread). In other words, I was actually commending your post. ;-)





I never did either, but you’ve clearly heard of it; else, how can you ‘inadvertently’ refer to OC as ‘the OC’?

Whatever dude. I’m not explaining myself any further... Buh bye.

[jet757f]

We have lived in Irvine since 1995 when it used to be nice. It is far from a vacation here. It has become overpopulated with no infrastructure and the crime rate has increased. They keep building more apartments and houses to add to the problem The traffic has become terrible certain times of the day. It can take 30 min just to get to the other side of town. The city council has refused to slow down building. I could go on and on.

We only have a vacation when we get out of Irvine for a while. There are a lot of nicer cities in Orange County to live. We have no plans to retire here.

[NORTY FLATZ]

Anyone going to Costa Mesa Speedway tonight? (It's the "Harley Night" finals!)

[islanders2021]

Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker

I live in Irvine. Great weather, pretty calm, proximity to a lot of great areas. Am I being too positive? I hope positivity is allowed. As I was in my pool, I looked out at the hills and thought why would I ever want to leave? When I vacation in other areas, they're very often less attractive than where I live. This isnt' meant to boast, but I feel great living here and I'm not sure why I need to feel bad about it.

For those that want/have to leave, that's ok too. To each their own.

I'm a life long NYer who has traveled out to LA/Orange county the last few years to explore, specifically Irivine. You are correct. Amazing place. If I could afford to move there, I'd be there tomorrow. I guess when you grow up in such a nice area you get used to it...kind of the way I take for granted a lot of things here in NYC.

As a NY'er, what I love about Irvine is like you say, beautiful landscape with mountains and then the ocean not far, great weather...and for me if I needed some NYC filth you'd only be a short drive to LA!!!!

[Sand&Salt]

Originally Posted by apple92680

This is an interesting post and it brings to mind something I was pondering recently...

I've known quite a few younger (30s-40s) working age people that have moved out of state to places like Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Idaho. Those were nearby states where they used to spend vacation time. When you're on vacation, it's usually exciting and you've got endorphins and serotonin working at higher levels in the brain. This is the opposite feeling of your home city/state where you have a job, bills, obligations and responsibilities.

So, naturally, you feel like the place you are vacationing is "paradise" and home is "not fun/not exciting" and mentally exhausting.

Here's where it gets interesting:

Of those younger people I mentioned who moved out of state, about 2/3 of them think that they might have made a "mistake" in their move.

The "vacation" veneer of those places they moved to isn't there anymore and they're talking about how much more difficult and inflexible the working conditions are in some of those places. Another element I've heard is that people in those places were "much nicer to us when we were visitors" and not so much now that they're part of the community.

Add in the lower wages and the lack of access to the variety of recreation that they were accustomed to in California, and it adds up to quite a bit of remorse. Most know that they can't come back and are just doing what they can to make he best of their new homes.

It's an interesting paradox.

I always tell working age people that say they're considering a move out of California to give it some long and intense thought and to really weight it out.

Yes, in a way I wish someone would have influenced us to stay. Unless you're a multi-millionaire, "you can't go home again". We left Mission Viejo in '87 and I kind of wish we hadn't. But we wanted to build our own houses and even back then, property was unaffordable in OC/San Diego.

So we picked a golf course community to build outside of Denver and hated it. But, had a lot of great experiences all over the U.S. moving around, that we would not have had if we'd stayed.

I'm conflicted, as OC still feels like "home". But I have to be at the beach in retirement, so here we are! WAY down south, lol. So now we vacation in SoCal for 2 months and spend the rest of the year paying for it.

Yes, we get by just fine without a car while there, but that's because we are retired and nowhere we have to be. We just use the Coaster or Uber. Almost everything we need, we can walk to. And still at the beach!

[allpeopleunite]

Originally Posted by jet757f

We have lived in Irvine since 1995 when it used to be nice. It is far from a vacation here. It has become overpopulated with no infrastructure and the crime rate has increased. They keep building more apartments and houses to add to the problem The traffic has become terrible certain times of the day. It can take 30 min just to get to the other side of town. The city council has refused to slow down building. I could go on and on.

We only have a vacation when we get out of Irvine for a while. There are a lot of nicer cities in Orange County to live. We have no plans to retire here.

In fairness, Irvine is a planned city whose democratically-elected city government is deep in bed with the Irvine Company that originally owned the land that the City of Irvine sits on and has developed piece by piece since the 1960s. If it makes you feel any better, with the exception of a few areas on the southern and western edge (many of which have since become part of various State Parks and so cannot be built on) the city is more or less built-out. Even with high-density construction the remaining undeveloped land won't amount to the kind of job and population growth that Irvine has seen in the past few decades.